TOKYO, April 25, 2018 (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Wednesday as a rise in US bond yields above three per cent and warnings from bellwether US companies of higher costs drove fears that a boom in corporate earnings may be near its peak. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.3 per cent, hitting their weakest in almost three weeks, with tech-heavy Taiwan shares slipping to two-month lows on worries about slowing semi-conductor demand. Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.2 per cent. European shares are expected to fall, with spread-betters calling a 0.7 to 0.9 per cent drop in Britain's, Germany's and France's. Wall Street shares skidded overnight, with the S&P 500 slumping 1.34 per cent, the most in two-and-a-half weeks. Industrial heavyweight Caterpillar beat earnings estimates due to strong global demand but its shares tumbled 6.2 per cent after management said first-quarter earnings would be the "high water mark" for the year and warned of increasing steel prices. "We've seen quite a lot of companies announcing above-estimate earnings and their shares falling sharply," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. Fujito noted major financial shares such as Goldman Sachs and Citigroup as well as Google parent Alphabet, the first major tech firm to report earnings, have followed a similar pattern. Corporate earnings are in solid shape, with analysts estimating 21.1 per cent growth in the Jan-March quarter among US S&P500 firms, according to Thomson Reuters data. A similar trend is expected globally.
